The Upper House approved a proposal on August 14 to take action against businesses with coin-operated gambling machines in an effort to remove all of them from the country.
MP Aung Thein from Bago Region’s Constituency-12 submitted the proposal to the Upper House on July 7, saying several companies had acquired official licenses to operate as “game centres for children” from municipal authorities and opened centres with coin-operated gambling machines in several cities across the country.

Two machine operators died in a fishing boat accident about 10 miles west of Sawmonhla Island in the Myeik Archipelago in Taninthayi Region on August 13.

Myo Nge, a worker on the boat, said: “I heard a blast first. My father and an operator were in the engine room when it caught fire. My father managed to jump into water. Another man was trapped in the fire.”

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Sports, 73 patients who are confirmed to have been infected with seasonal H1N1 are receiving treatment at hospitals. Most of the patients are getting better, the statement says.

From July 21 to August 13, 230 out of 617 hospitalised patients were found to be infected with H1N1, and the death toll reached 23.

Up to August 9, 18 patients who were infected with H1N1 died from other diseases.

The chief of the Monywa General Hospital in Sagaing Region has confirmed that two patients have tested positive for H1N1, also known as swine flu.

Dr Aye Nyein said on August 14: “A resident from Salingyi Township went to the Mandalay General Hospital and died of H1N1. A GTC [technological college] student and a worker from a hospital in Tantsal Township have also been diagnosed with H1N1.”

A suspected elephant poacher was shot while resisting arrest during a police bust on August 13 in Thabaung Township, Ayeyawady Region.

Suspect Cho Tin, a 55-year-old resident of Ayeywady Region, was wounded on his right thigh and is now being treated at the Pathein General Hospital. Two other suspects who were with Chi Tin at the time of the attempted arrest are on the loose, according to police.

About half of the households in the villages near the Beluchaung hydropower project in Loikaw Township, Kayah State, have no access to electricity, according to village administrators and town elders.

In 1993, the government installed electric meters in Solasal, Lawkahtoo, Mikekan and Kanni villages in the Lawpita village-tract at a cost of Ks 50,000 per meter. However, newer homes in the are not connected to the power grid.

Only if the Tatmadaw (defense services) and ethnic armed organisations change their ‘conviction spirit’ will the peace process meet with success, said Dr Salai Hlyan Hmone, vice-chairman of the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee, said at a forum titled “Transition from War to Peace” in Nay Pyi Taw on August 12.

Dr Salai Hlyan Hmone said: “We are facing a huge challenge to peace at a time when we are holding peace dialogues with the aim of eliminating internal armed conflicts and of establishing a federal, democratic Union.